A carved wooden miniature three-quarter length bust of a female facing forward. She is wearing a classical pleated dress, right breast exposed, and a sash across the left shoulder and under her right sleeve. The figurehead represents the one from the wooden screw frigate Chesapeake (1855), named after the captured United States frigate Chesapeake (captured 1813). The figurehead is mounted on a shield shaped bracket with a carved shelf above.

The plaque behind the figurehead states: 'MODEL OF A FIGUREHEAD OF U.S. FRIGATE CHESAPEAKE THAT FOUGHT THE ACTION WITH H.M.S. SHANNON IN BOSTON HARBOUR ON June 1ST 1813. CARVED FROM A PIECE OF WOOD CUT FROM THE ORIGINAL FIGUREHEAD PRESERVED AT SHEERNESS DOCKYARD..'

However, the original Chesapeake had a billethead carving and not a figurehead. Therefore this will represent the figurehead for the later HMS Chesapeake, launched 1855, whose figurehead was preserved at Sheerness Dockyard after the ship was broken up. The miniature figurehead is not completely accurate, as the original (and replica at the Blue Town Museum, Sheppey) had an American First Nation style feather headdress and is more elegantly carved.